


Hold on to me

by ClaraCivry (Kat_Of_Dresden)



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: But this time Dani isn't fast enough to stop him being shot, Friendship and h/c, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Just Malcolm waking up from another night terror, Malcolm Bright Needs a Hug, Multiple Pov, Night Terrors, Nightmares, Protective!Dani, She's pissed, Tiny bit of hurt Malcolm, some strong language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 10:42:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20834132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Of_Dresden/pseuds/ClaraCivry
Summary: Bright wakes up from a night terror and in the chaos he gets shot. Dani is there to avoid further damage. Sh'es also pissed that he got shot in the first place.Just some Malcolm angst and protective Dani because yes.





	Hold on to me

“Don’t shoot!”

She’s on top of him, she’s covering all of him so that they will stop shooting. She glaring at them with a look that could probably kill people on its own and the moment the guns are lowered she focuses on him. Him, who’s bleeding, who eyes are nowhere but here, him who’s bleeding and has the horror etched in his eyes still.

She’s embracing him, hoping the human contact will get him back to reality.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” She silently motions Gil to call for an ambulance - they got him on a shoulder, and while it’s probably not fatal, it’s bleeding a lot.

She holds him down while he struggles against her, probably still caught in the throes of whatever bad dream it’s been this time. His eyes are open but unfocused, clearly not there, he's clearly not awake yet. And still... Everyone had been so ready to shoot him, so happy to have an excuse. You see something weird and you shoot, by default. This is was not a police officer should do. And yet is what Dani has seen all her life.

She'd seen it so many times while growing up, mentally ill people being shot being they had an episode, because their sickness expressed itself in a way that the law deemed “suspicious” or “dangerous”. People who couldn’t afford meds, people (probably this was Bright’s case) who couldn’t be properly fixed with meds. A lot of those people got killed and she’d promised herself that she wouldn’t be one of those people. That she would defend even those who were not all there. Like him. Broken down Bright, still trying to help despite his body and his mind working so tirelessly against him. Must be exhausting.

Bright’s struggles start to die down and she continues to hush him “it’s okay, it’s okay, it was just a dream”. She can feel his blood drenching her tee and her jacket and she clenches her teeth. This should not be happening, Bright should not be in danger of dying amongst peers every day. And yet he is. Everyone is suspicious of him, and no one ever listens when they explain.

“I get nightmares too, and I don’t make such a fuss.” Dani loves her job, but wishes that so many officers weren’t so... dense.

But now is not the time for that. Now is the time to focus on this poor man who has been shot while still trying to wake from a gruesome night terror. She can feel his blood, and it’s all wrong, but this is not the time to dwell on an unjust system, not the time to be angry. (Even though she's really fucking angry)

“It’s okay.”

Bright is holding onto her like a lifeline, a couple of sobs coming out. She holds him tighter and lets him come back slowly. She knows that she needs to put pressure in the wound and scream for some paramedic or something, but first....

This is someone who has become her friend, someone who is in a lot of pain. She holds him tightly, looking furiously at each and every officer who drew their weapon. She wants to convey the message that is not fucking okay to shoot at a man who was merely trying to defend himself from an attacker that wasn’t there. Bright is almost never armed, too. She can feel her anger rising at all of it, the injustice, the ignorance, the pain.

This will not stand.

When she looks down again, Bright’s eyes seem to be there again, back in the world of the living, but he doesn’t look like he recognises her yet.

“It’s okay. You’re okay.”

Bright doesn’t say a word, but holds on tighter, despite the sharp pain in his shoulder getting worse.

Some part of him knows he’s surrounded. Some part of him knows that a lot of these men and women are convinced he’s one of the serial killers he hunts, or that he’s faking all of this. And he can’t deal with any of that. But it’s okay.

Dani won’t let them win.

*

He remembers the body parts.

The needles and the clean deaths.

He can his dad with a needle and a smile, and suddenly he see himself with a needle and a smile.

He is him. He can’t escape that. He’ll kill, he’ll he’ll kill, he’ll killllllllllll

And he’ll know exactly how it will feel, and he will feel it himself, fuck, there he is, chased by his own shadow, with that needle, and if the shadow gets him, if it does, there will be no turning back, his father his laughing in the background, his mother is screaming in the background and he’s running because he has to win, he needs to win, and be different and he runs, but the shadow is gaining on him, the shadow will eat him, the shadow....

He’s falling onto something hard and there is an explosion of pain he doesn’t understand. The unending corridor where his shadow was chasing him, so clear seconds ago, is beginning to lose it’s edges, its colour and shape. He doesn’t know where is is, he doesn’t know what he is, he doesn’t understand what is happening. All he understands is his need to get away, how hard it is to breathe and the pain is spreading through his body, from his shoulder to his arms and his chest and he doesn’t understand he was getting away...

But then something warm and calm is there, and he leans into it. Somebody’s voice is telling him that it’s okay, and they are holding him, a shield against the hardness and the pain and the cold. Malcolm starts to get a better grip on his senses, gradually stops trying to run, to get away and loses himself on this warm presence.

“It’s okay.”

He can’t believe it, not yet, but he’s grateful for the voice. He holds on tight, feeling many pairs of unkind eyes on him. The pain is still there, but he thinks he knows where he is now, what has happened. Fuck. Not again.

He looks at his pillow person and sees dark eyes. Understanding. A nod that says “don’t worry, I got you”. It’s all he needed.

Due to a mix of exhaustion, blood loss and a sudden feeling of safety, Malcolm collapses right there in Dani’s arms finally off to some rest with no dreams.

*

“Where’s Donovan?” Malcolm is back at the station, arm in a sling, drowsy from too many pain meds some time later, after Gil called him.

Donovan is the officer who shot him. He is suddenly absent.

“He’s been suspended. Turns out he didn’t appear some days that he was supposed to come, and turns out he got two extra pays by mistake and didn’t report it. Two years in a row.” Gil says, matter of factly.

“I didn’t know that.”

“Neither did I. But someone went through the trouble of looking up every detail related to him until they found something to get him away from the force.”

Malcolm smiles as he sees Dani looking at all of them dense officers with a look that speaks volumes. __This is what happens when you shoot somebody you shouldn’t. Shoot him again and you will face the consequences.__A look can communicate so much.

_ _

But she doesn’t say anything about it. He knows, and she knows that he know it’s been her, but there’s no need to discuss it.

“You shouldn’t be here.” She just says. “You still have two weeks of leave.”

“I was called.”

She looks sharply at Gil.

“I was running out of ideas!”

Malcolm smiles, genuinely for once.

“Why don’t I get us some coffee, huh? I’ll be seating and getting something to eat.” Dani raises an eyebrow at Bright’s definition of eating, but guesses that some coffee is better than nothing “Gil can tell me about this case and you can...Grace us with your lovely presence.”

Dani scoffs. Usually, she hates rich boys. Usually she hates smartasses like him.

But there’s something about Bright... A whole world under the confidence and sarcasm, pain and agony mixed with genius and conflict. He’s... something different and something unique. Someone with a good heart constantly fighting with himself.

She likes him.

Her eyes says so. They also say that he can hold onto her, always.

His say thank you.

Thank you, thank you and a million times thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> You know you want to comment ;)


End file.
